Animal Superstitions In Salem

The mass hysteria between today’s society and the Salem witch hunt can be compared through Freedom , Religion ,and the killing of innocent victims. Mass hysteria has caused a lot of destruction in society throughout the years. It has brought about a lot of chaos in both Salem as well as the present society. Mass hysteria has brought out a lot of fear in people in both Salem and present society.

The salem witch trials hysteria of 1692 was caused by the Puritans strict religious standards and intolerance of anything not accepted with their scripture. The largest account of witch trials as well as deaths by witch trials occurred in Salem, a village heavily populated with the Puritans. Because most of the trials were occurring in Salem, this meant that the accusations were happening among the Puritans themselves, which could very well be anything as long as the Puritans found it as contradicting their bible. Not only did the strict religion intolerance fuel the accusations and trials, but also the possible factor of ergot being involved which has been known to cause symptoms leading to hysteria.

A modern day Witch Hunt that can relate to the Salem Witch Hunt and the Crucible due to condemnation of members of society, instinctual prejudice, estrangement of members of society, and mass hysteria is the Holocaust. To estrange members in society means to push people in society out of it. In the Salem Witch Trials, the people in society pushed the Witches out, and even pushed away the women and men they felt were going to be witches, so that they could look more like witches. In the Holocaust, the Jews were pushed out of society and because of that, they looked more suspicious to the human race.

The Salem Witch Trials was an uncanny and eerie event of hearings and prosecutions of people being accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. Although it lasted from 1691 to 1692, it lead to more than 200 people, including men and women, being accused and arrested of witchcraft and 20 of those people executed. The hysteria began with two young girls: Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams claiming to be possessed by the devil, causing the “witch-fever” among the Salem village. In this essay the circumstances behind poor harvest, sickness and the conjecture of witches and witchcraft being highly considered as a cause in this era will be described. The Salem Witch Trials were caused by environmental factors because the Salem community had limited understanding of natural causes such as poor harvest, sickness and diseases.

“Witch Hunt” is a term often thrown around whenever a group of people is being sought out and punished for their actions, regardless of whether they are actually guilty or not. Throughout history, there have been hundreds of different “witch hunts”, and not all of them have been hunting for witches. A few examples include the persecution of Muslims in post-9/11 USA, the sexual assault allegations of male celebrities and politicians being brought to light in 2017, and the search for communists through McCarthyism in the 1950’s. The most famous witch hunt that involved witches, though, occurred in a small village in Massachusetts called Salem, in 1692. But what caused these trials, and what made them so different from all of the others? There were no witches in Salem, but there was the impact of a sexist society on teenage girls, a desperate grab for land, and a malfunctioning legal system that allowed innocent people to be put to death. These are the three main causes of the famed Salem Witch Trials.

The Salem Witch Trials were a time of paranoia and mass hysteria. In this small town of Massachusetts hundreds were accused of witchcraft and 19 people were executed. Salem was home to very devout Puritans. The worries arrived when young girls would become sick with no explanation or cure. The doctors not knowing what the cause of the illness was, quickly pronounce the girls bewitched. It spread terror through the town. The girls, as well as other residents, started accusing others of witchery. Many accusations were because of vengeance or self-interest. There were rivalries between families over land or wealth. Neighbors started accusing each other in order to gain their land. The religious community had an intensified sense of fear that the Devil was walking among them. They believed witches were out to destroy the Puritans. In order to purify the village of evil they had trials for the accused.

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he writes, “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” (Miller 77). This partially fictionalized tale of the Salem Witch Trials points to one of the causes of the trials, vengeance, but the over dramatized tale 's early stages were quiet. The Salem Witch Episode had humble beginnings in the town of Salem Village, Massachusetts, but evolved into one of the most widely known witch trials in American History. The gallows in Salem claimed the lives of nineteen men and woman during the spring and summer of 1692 due to the accusations of witchcraft with over a hundred people who were accused. After all the terror and the uproar of the trials occurred, everything came to a screeching halt (Linder 1). Due to the unique circumstances of this particular set of witch trials, from the rampant accusations to the discontinuation of the trials mass hysteria does not seem to be fault as with other witch trials, but a variety of factors. The Salem witch trials were not just a simple case of mass hysteria, but a combination of factors ranging from poisons to superstitions to scapegoats, resulting in the outbreak of the Salem Witch episode.

The Salem Witch Trails started in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 and went on till 1693. There were 200 individuals and more accused of practicing witchcraft. Witchcraft was known for practicing the devils magic. These people who were accused were arrested and then imprisoned. Unfortunately, there were 20 people who were executed, including two animals which were dogs. Those 20 people were hung at the Gallows Hills near the Salem Village. One man was stoned to death and other individuals died in jail. Living in the colonial Massachusetts, children were known to help their parents as much as possible. Boys were known to “work as apprentices outside of the house, but also go hunting and fishing” (Jason C., Wilson K. and Shaunak P, n.d.). The girls were known to “help their mothers clean, cook, wash, and stew” (Jason C., Wilson K. and Shaunak P, n.d.). There was not much time for children to play or have fun. To show that someone didn’t pursue any witchcraft, there was a series of steps that needed to be done. This mass hysteria brought one village to be divided into two clashing groups. The nation has been facing similar problems for its entire existence and this is evidenced by the persecution of innocent people during the Salem Witch Trials.

During the late 15th to 17th centuries, thousands of individuals were persecuted as witches, mainly older women. Throughout this era, it was widely believed that these individuals performed evil deeds of the devil and practiced dark, black magic. The events of the witch trials occurred in a time of great change in Europe. In a time of social, religious, economic, and political uncertainty or instability during the period of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and more political shifts and changes, citizens began to turn to supernatural scapegoats and superstition, which in a way revived the religious theology which had flared downwards during the Renaissance. Witches were soon hunted down and unjustly

The Salem Witch trials were a horrible time in American history filled with distrust, betrayal, and paranoia. These trials caused many innocent people to be imprisoned or even put to death. The Salem Witch trials took place in colonial Massachusetts from 1692-1693. These trials were unfair paranoia fueled cases in which the whole town of Salem would gang up on certain people accused of being a witch or warlock. The accused would be questioned and then taken to a special court made just for the witch trials. After the trial they would get a verdict of guilty or not guilty and the guilty ones would be imprisoned in harsh conditions or even put to death. This wasn’t the first time these “witch hunts” had occurred. According to Jess Blumberg in her article A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials, “Several centuries ago, many practicing Christians, and those of other religions, had a strong belief that the Devil could give certain people known as witches the power to harm others in return for their loyalty. A “witchcraft craze” rippled through Europe from the 1300 stop the end of the 1600s.” This event took place right before the Salem witch trials began, setting a tone of fear and distrust throughout colonial America. At this time in the colonies, strict religion was a big part of everyday life which only made things worse for the accused. This is because the colonists were very set in their ways and did not have open minds when it came to other reasons as to why these strange

Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. It started when a group of young girls showed odd behavior as well as them, also claiming to be possessed by the Devil. At that time most of the people in Massachusetts were Puritans who heavily believed in Devil as real as God. Puritans recognized that the accusers were influenced by the Devil. In the 21st century, it is hard to admit that the main cause was only the devil.

Being that the Salem Witch Trails date back to over three hundred years, many people believe witch trails are a thing of the past. However, modern day witch trails are still extremely prevalent. Modern-day witch-hunts are reported to still be happening in Africa, the Pacific, Latin America, even in the U.S. and Europe. According to a New York Times article, within the last fifteen years alone, more than 2,000 Indians have been killed after being accused of witchcraft. Almost all of the accused have been women, usually accused by a neighbor or due because of personal disputes about land rights or personal property. Not only are witch-hunts going on in India, but reports have also come in from Papa New Guinea. Starting in 2000, when a newspaper reported men were tortured with weapons, including iron rods, before being beaten and burned to death, there have been many accusations of people partaking in witchcraft. Not only are these accusations happening to woman, they are happening to men, children, and the elderly. Causes for witch-hunts in Papa New Guinea are believed to have steamed from problems between men and the community, sparked because of the lack of educational and economic opportunities, also fueled by drug use. It is heavily debated that one of the reasons the Salem Witch Trials had such an impact on America is because modern day witch hunts have made what happened in Salem still relevant. One theory states that the witch scare was brought on by the ministers as a

To start, Carlson informs the readers that in the Salem witch trails both humans and animals suffered from unknown symptoms. Humans “began to suffer from a strange physical and mental malady…The livestocks, too, seemed to suffer from unexplainable illness.” (Carlson, 78). Then, she compares similar events from different time periods. For instance, before the Salem witch trails, New England experienced similar symptoms in 1640s and in the future a similar pandemic with the exact symptoms occurred globally from the 1916 to 1930. Through this juxtaposition of similar events that occurred at different times, it demonstrates that the Salem witch trails was actually caused by a natural occurring human biological infection. In addition, Carlson lists the afflictions reported at Salem and corresponds it to the

Witch hunting was the persecution and possible execution of individuals considered to be ‘witches’ loyal to the devil. It was an all too common occurrence from 1603-1712 all over Europe. However in order to understand why this happened the context must be taken into account. It was a time of change, the Renaissance - the rebirth of culture, ideas and attitudes to living. The Reformation had also only been implemented in England in the last 80 years back from 1603, when it had previously been catholic for centuries. The English civil war from 1642 to 1651 is argued to have played a part in the intensification of the witch hunts in England due to the peak in executions whilst it was on going. Some historians have taken the view that in time of crisis certain groups can be victimised like in wars, famine, disease outbreaks and changes in society structure.

Through a historical standpoint, humanity can be seen as a cyclic development in which old inclinations are further manifested to suit new social orders. As a result, issues that caused mass hysteria in an earlier era are often repeated again and we, just as the people of the old eras, are unable to recognize the flaws in our logic until it is too late. The witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries are perfect example, in that looking back today they seem like a stain on the history of mankind, but at the time being not many people stopped to think about the horrific acts they were committing As time progressed, and people no longer felt the need to ruin entire villages in order to fulfill their own philological desires, witch hunts, like many other trends, also came to an end. As of now, this end in mass witch-hunts can often be symbolized by the story of Anna Göldi, who not only signifies the change in how people thought, but also signifies the occurrence of excessive accusations in times of fear and ignorance.